From a request to a closed work order

Why it matters

Without a work order the job still gets done, but three things are lost: who is on it right now, how long it took, and what was actually wrong. The first costs you the morning meeting, the second costs you the staffing argument, the third costs you the same repair again in three months.

How it works in LK Up

1. Triage. A new request sits in Requests → New and on the manager's dashboard under To triage. Accept turns it into a work order: pick the assignee or a team, the priority and the due date, press Create work order. The request stays linked, so the reporter can follow the repair. Merge joins it to another request; Reject asks for a reason the reporter will see.
2. Or start one directly. Technicians and up press New work order anywhere: a title, the asset, the type and priority, an estimate (or Use the typical time of similar done work), a procedure from the library for the checklist, and From template… for the jobs you make again and again.
3. Do it from the phone. The technician opens it from My work or by scanning the machine. The bar at the bottom moves it along: Start (the timer starts), Hold with a reason such as "Waiting for the crane", Done, Close, Reopen. Answering the first checklist item starts the work order by itself. Everything works offline and syncs later.
4. The checklist is the work. Pass or Fail, a reading with limits, a photo where asked, a signature where required. Required items block Done. A failed item or an out-of-limits reading can open a corrective work order on its own.
5. Time, parts, people. Labour by person and day, Helpers for whoever worked with you, Use a part… from stock, Reserve a part… to hold it for the job before you take it, comments and photos in the timeline.
6. Close with a cause. The Done sheet asks what your plant requires: a problem code, a cause, the action taken, your own fields. With no codes yet, Load the starter set gives thirty common ones (ISO 14224). An order over the amount you set waits for a manager's Approve.
7. Keep the thread. Create follow-up opens a new work order on the same machine and category; Link… marks a duplicate, a parent or a child. A contractor without an account gets one work order as a link that works until the date you set.

Why we built it this way

• The status moves on the work order's own page, not in a form. Start, Hold, Done are buttons under the technician's thumb, because a status that has to be edited in a dropdown is a status nobody updates.
• Hold has a reason. "On hold" without a reason is where work orders go to die. Your own reasons (Settings → Hold reasons) make the Monday list readable: waiting for parts, waiting for production, waiting for the crane.
• The first checklist answer starts the job. We watched technicians forget Start and lose the timer. The checklist cannot be answered without working, so answering it is the start.
• Codes at closing, not at opening. The problem code is known when the work is done, not when the report arrives. Asking earlier gets a guess; asking later gets the cause.
• A template is a filled form, nothing more. It fills the fields you have not typed and never changes work orders already made from it, so a changed template does not rewrite history.

What it does not do

A work order does not control the machine, does not send anything to the PLC and does not close itself. An automation rule can assign, raise priority or notify, but it never closes a work order, approves one, or touches money or stock. The details, with every button: chapter 6 of the user manual.